http://tinyurl.com/277chc
Teenaged Angshumita exposes brutality against children in ‘Hidden Love’
Pranjal Baruah
12 November 2007, Monday
IT IS NOT just the blasts and killings that reign in the state of Assam.
There are also the good things, which do not get eclipsed in this
distress -- like the pen of a young girl, Angshumita Deka. She is cute,
energetic and ambitious. Dreaming to become an astronaut, this girl made
a name for herself in the tender age of 13, with the release of her
first novel ‘Hidden Love’. She is a class VIII student of Holy Child
School.
“Its wonderful and unbelievable that she managed to do it so early,”
says one of her classmates. She is in her teens and decided to write a
fiction on ‘witchcraft’, a custom that has been the subject of many
stories from the past and has led to the killing of many innocents.
Assam, along with its sister states, has always been a kingdom of
magicians who came from the Himalayas to wor****p their gods and demons
in this land. The Assam history depicts many a stories on their
practices in the Ahom dynasty and the reminiscence of those customs
still prevails in this soil in places like Mayong, Nagaon, Dhubri and
many other places, where people believe in spiritual powers and the
effects of the unseen on mankind. Many females and babies have been
buried live in this region after being accused of being witches and
devils, with the intention to protect the civilisation from these evils
through the spilling of blood. And this young teenager picked up such a
controversial subject for her novel.
“I have read about the killings of innocents in the remote areas after
allegedly being taken to be witches and their wor****pers. Many kids
disappear in the name of sacrificing to the demons to empower the powers
of its deliverer. I firmly believe this should be stopped,” states
Angshumita in her firm voice, while adding that she believes the
practice of the witchcraft is just superstition rather than a
power-gathering source from above. She said that many of her age have
been taken, as victims of this evil practice and the civilisation should
put a stop to this through proper education and information.
It has been the first time that the land of militancy is witnessing the
budding talent of Angshumita in the form of a novel in English, at so
tender an age. She has made this effort to start a revolution in the
writing fraternity -- to enlarge the boundary, from regional to the
international level. “The educational system is also to be blamed in
this region for not producing such instances of good novelists and
writers. The society and the system have always prevailed with rigid
ideas. But the time of change is here, with Angshumita making the first
roar with her cute fingers, to roll on as a novelist in her 13,” says
Ka**** Sen Deka, the president of Asom Sahitya Sabha, on her novel.
The ideas need to change, to encourage people to do their best,
expressed Angshumita. While she wishes to fly in the garb of NASA, she
desperately wants her land Assam to make a mark on global map with her
capability and dreams, and her continuous ventures in writing. “I want
to explore myself with everything within my limits, but it needs a great
sup****t from your surroundings and it can be done by anybody who has the
will and potential. It only needs an environment and courage to fight
with odds.”
Angshumita is also optimistic in her views about Assam, as she thinks
that the militancy will be overcome with only the courage and the will
to change for the better.
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
http://tinyurl.com/3akhhr
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/clorebeast/
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"Tho-ag in Zhi-gyu slept seven Khorlo. Zodmanas
zhiba. All Nyug bosom. Konch-hog not; Thyan-Kam
not; Lha-Chohan not; Tenbrel Chugnyi not;
Dharmakaya ceased; Tgenchang not become; Barnang
and Ssa in Ngovonyidj; alone Tho-og Yinsin in
night of Sun-chan and Yong-grub (Parinishpanna),
&c., &c.,"
-- The Book of Dzyan.
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